12-12-2016, 09:41 PM
(12-12-2016, 08:24 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:(12-10-2016, 08:45 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Obama's agenda was much more radical. But we'll see if Obamacare can be repealed without a 60 vote majority, or if the Democrats stonewall that.
Medical care and retirement provision are 2 things I don't think free enterpriseTM handle. As such they should be public goods.
Medical care depends on random stuff like an odd mutation which causes cancer or losing the genetic lotto and getting early heart disease , type I diabetes, going blind, etc. There's also random stuff like car wrecks.
Retirement and running out of money is where you win the genetic lotto sorta, but losing the economic lotto and winding up with a body wearing construction job.
Whaddya think, and why?
I think a medical system that relies primarily on treatment rather than prevention is ridiculously messed up. We save a few bucks eating and drinking cheap, mass produced junk food, then spend thousands of dollars of "other people's money" fixing the cancer, diabetes, and heart disease that result. The problem is, we end up also being those "other people" who pay for everyone's medical expenses. And we're so far into the system - more than a generation - that most people have forgotten what healthy food actually is. It's a terrible system.
Did you know there's an inexpensive supplement that has been shown in clinical trials to prevent 77% of cancers in older women? Unfortunately since it's cheap, there's no money in marketing it, or even in testing it on men or on younger women. And since it's an off patent supplement, FDA rules prohibit its sellers from advertising the health benefits, because that would be a problem for the companies that make really expensive, marginally effective cancer drugs who have lots of money for lobbying the FDA. You've heard of this supplement, even if you didn't know it prevents cancer. I've written about the cancer result more extensively here:
http://psychohist.livejournal.com/53503.html
http://psychohist.livejournal.com/67372.html
The best approach would be for everyone to pay for their own food, doctor's visits, and health insurance; that way, they'd be able to pick a balance that offered them the most benefit for the least cost. Current employer contributions to health insurance could be turned into pay which people could choose to use on any of these things.
Some level of regulation would be needed to ensure that the insurance companies were able to make good on their promises. Some level of subsidy could be provided for the poor by state government or private charity, which might cover a minimum level of medical care in the event of a catastrophic eventuality. But that's as far as I'd really want it.
Auto accidents would be covered by auto insurance, of course.
Except for the part about auto insurance, though, that's so far from what we have that we'll probably need to take baby steps even to start moving in that direction.